Set up NeoFinder to share the catalog database in the
network

NeoFinder stores its catalog database files inside any specified
database folder, so you can simply use a network server to host
that folder to share your catalogs among multiple users in your
workgroup.

As the separate tool CDWinder for Windows uses the very same data format
as NeoFinder, you can even share your data across platforms this
way (on both Apple Macintosh and Microsoft Windows)!

1. Create a new folder on a server volume. Name it "NeoFinder
Catalogs" or something similar. Make sure that this folder can be
accessed by all computers which will run NeoFinder or
CDWinder.

2. Install and configure NeoFinder on every machine. Please make
sure you have enough licenses for NeoFinder, as the networking
feature will only work if you have a suffient number of
licenses.

3. Tell every NeoFinder copy to use the "NeoFinder Catalogs" folder
on the server as the database folder. Use the NeoFinder Preferences
for that:

Click on the "Change" button, and select the folder you have
created in step one.

Now repeat this very same procedure on every Mac you want to use
(and you have NeoFinder licenses for!).

But wait, there is a trick to speed things up! After you have
installed the first NeoFinder, you can just copy the application
folder to the next Mac, as well as the file named "NeoFinder
Preferences". That file contains all settings that you have just
made, and also the location of the catalog data folder, and even
your registration code.

That's it! Now that was simple.

There are a few extra things to be considered:

This really requires a Business License for NeoFinder! You must
have one license for every Mac computer in the network you want to
run NeoFinder on. It makes no difference if you actually store the
NeoFinder application on your file server...

Make sure that both platforms can access the catalog data folder.
Most current servers will allow that.

It doesn't matter which computer platform the server uses, as long
as both Mac and Windows can access the catalog data folder.

If you do not wish that every user in the network may change the
catalogs in the data folder, just use the access privileges that
your server provides! Allow only one or a few administrators write
access to the catalog data folder and its subfolders, while
everyone else just has read access. NeoFinder will honor these
access rights and handle accordingly.

As Windows does not allow for some special characters in the names
of files and folders, NeoFinder will not use some of them when it
comes to naming catalogs. The "/" char is not allowed, a "." at the
end of a name, and generally blanks at the end of names, too. For
catalog files, that is no big deal, as the catalog file name can be
different from the actual name that you see in the NeoFinder
windows. But that same limitation is true for catalog data folder
names, and in that case there is only one name...

As CDWinder for Windows and NeoFinder for Macintosh are developed
and sold by two different companies, it is necessary to obtain
licenses for the two applications separately.

NeoFinder Praise:"We have been using a combination of NeoFinder and abeMeda,
both with server licenses, to catalog several hundred hard drives,
all quite successfully. Our combined catalogs are over 7GB,
covering a library size of 723TB of which 478TB is actual files
(21M of them). So that's good!"Chris P., New York,
USA

"I'm running it as our main studio filing system
for hundreds of CDs in our archives and I just wanted to say that I
am really pleased with it."Jonathan J,
Australia
"Forget about about the slow, expensive, server operated, database
catalog programmes and just get CDFinder."Patrick van
GerwenBlog
"Your program is incredibly fast and easy to use. I've never been
so organized. Can't thank you enough!!!"Dennis C.
Nashville, USA
"I've been a long time user of NeoFinder/CD Finder (15 years?), and
it is one of the few pieces of software I own that I know I can
rely on and therefore part of my critical arsenal. It always works
and keeps getting better and better. NeoFinder stays ahead of the
pack in terms of features, reliability and OS compatibility. What
more could one ask for. I wish Apple and Adobe had the same
integrity and approach to their products."Bryce B.
London
"CDFinder is the best!"John C., USA

"Your product CDFinder is wonderful. It is cost
effective, works well and is an beautiful solution to the very real
problem of removing and storing files away from a computer network
or hard drive. I have many requests to "find" old images of
products and this saves untold time without being an overly complex
IT solution to deploy."Darryl v.H., Canada

"I was comparing various Cataloging software and
after extensive use and testing I came to conclusion that CDFinder
beats the competition by miles."Jelena T., USA

"I originally found your software hunting for
something to catalog our CDs we used for archiving. That was at the
last print shop I worked at. Now I am running a prep department at
another shop. Your software was one of my 1st purchases. I came
into a shop that has had explosive growth and the system used here
was antiquated to say the least. Again CD Finder is tops, I use it
all the time."Mike B.,
USA"CDFinder is far superior to
the search function that comes with OS X. We do a lot of searching
for files on our Xserve and a lot of times the Finder does not find
the files we are looking for. When in fact we know the files are
there. So we decided to experiment and catalogue our Xserve with
CDFinder. Now the search results are 100% accurate!"Justin L, Ontario, Canada